Chair with seat tilt adjustment



June 5, 1956 C. J. BARECKI 2,748,835

CHAIR WITH SEAT TILT ADJUSTMENT Filed Feb. 7, 1955 5 Sheets-Sheet l INVENTOR ATTORNEY June 5, 1956 c. J. BARECKI 2,748,835

CHAIR WITH SEAT TILT ADJUSTMENT Filed Feb. 7, 1955 3 Sheets-Sheet 2 IN VENTOR lax/$11M ATTORNEY June 5, 1956 c. J. BARECKI 2,748,835

CHAIR WITH SEAT TILT ADJUSTMENT Filed Feb'. 7, 1955 3 Sheets-Sheet 3 ATTORNEY United States Patent CHAIR WITH SEAT TILT ADJUSTMENT Chester J. Barecki, Grand Rapids, Mich., assignor to American Seating Company, Grand Rapids, Mich., a corporation of New Jersey Application February 7, 1955, Serial No. 486,466

6 Claims. (Cl. 155-120) The present invention relates to chairs and more particularly to chairs of the type installed in vehicles for occupancy by the operators of the vehicles. Such chairs are commonly installed in motorbusses and railway engine cabs, and it is imporant that they embody many features of adjustment to accommodate them to operators of different sizes, proportions and preferences in the matter of comfort.

The primary object of the present invention is to provide an operators chair having improved means for adjusting the tilt of the seat, whereby the operator can adjust the tilt of the seat with only one hand while his other hand is left free for operation of the vehicles controls.

An illustrative embodiment of the invention is shown in the accompanying drawings, wherein:

Figure 1 is a front perspective view of an operators chair for a vehicle;

Figure 2 is a rear perspective view of the same;

Figure 3 is a top plan view of the seat of the chair, with portions thereof broken away;

Figure 4 is a vertical sectional view of the same taken on line 4-4 of Figure 3;

Figure 5 is a fragmentary view of parts of the same some of which are shown in different positions than those shown in Figure 4;

Figure 6 is a fragmentary view partly in top plan and partly in horizontal section taken on line 6--6 of Figure 7; and

Figure 7 is a fragmentary side elevational view, with portions broken away, of said seat tilted forwardly on the supporting structure therefor.

Referring now in detail to these drawings, the operators chair there shown generally comprises a pedestal base 10 on which is mounted a chair-supporting frame 11 fabricated of metal tubing and having a front seatsupporting crossbar 12 and a rear seat-supporting crossbar 13, said crossbars being horizontally disposed in parallelism. The chair seat 14 is mounted as hereinafter fully described on the crossbars 12, 13, while the chair back 15 is mounted on a tubular back frame 16 pivotally connected to the chair-supporting frame 11. The chair seat 14 and back 15 are desirably upholstered in leather, fabric or other suitable material.

As seen in Figures 1 and 2 the chair includes more or less conventional height-adjusting mechanism housed within the pedestal 10 and including an operating foot pedal, fore-and-aft adjusting mechanism including an operating handle 17, and back-tilt adjusting mechanism including an operating handle 18. Inasmuch as these adjustment mechanisms form no part of the present invention, they are not shown nor described herein in detail.

The present invention covers only the adjustment of the seat for tilt and the adjustment mechanism is best seen in Figures 3 through 7. The seat 14 is built upon a bottom board 19 over which is disposed an upholstery pad 20 of foam rubber or other suitable material, and an upholstery cover 21 is stretched over and around the ice pad 20 and bottom board 19 and is secured at its marginal edges to the bottom board as by means of tacks.

The chair seat 14 is pivotally mounted at its front underside on the cylindrical, tubular front crossbar 12 of the supporting frame 11, by means of complementary pairs of bearing brackets 22, 23 secured to the seats bottom board 19 as by means of woodscrews 24, which pairs of brackets 22, 23 pivotally embrace the front crossbar 12 at spaced points thereon. The chair seat 14 is thus swingable about the horizontal axis of the .front crossbar 12 and it may be swung forwardly-upwardly through a considerable are as seen in Figure 7 to permit inspection of the parts of the chair which are normally underneath the seat.

A'metal plate 25 extends transversely across the rear underside of the seats bottom board 19 and is secured thereto as by means of rivets 26. The opposite end portions of this plate 25 are turned downwardly and notched to form keeper racks 27 having rearwardly extending teeth 28, which racks depend from the seat forwardly of the frames rear crossbar 13 as seen in Figures 3, 4 and 5. Spaced sleeves 29 are turnably mounted on the rear crossbar 13 rearwardly of the depending keeperracks 27 respectively. Each sleeve 29 has a crosssectionally U-shaped element 30 secured thereto as by means of welding indicated at 31, and each element 30 thus provides a latch 32 extending radially from its sleeve v29 and a spring-engaging hook 33 below the latch 32. The latches 32 are movable with their sleeves 29 to extreme forwardly extending positions of engagement beneath selected teeth 28 of the corresponding keeper racks 27 for supporting the rear of the seat at selected elevations. The latches 32 are also movable with the sleeves 29 to the extreme forwardly-upwardly extending positions indicated in Figure 7, wherein the latches 32 are out of the paths of the racks teeth 28 in their swinging movement with the seat 14. Pins 34 on the rear crossbar 13 extend into segmented voids 35 in the sleeves 29 and are adapted for contact with the sleeves at the opposite ends of the voids for limiting movements of the sleeves 29 and latches 32 to their aforesaid extreme positions.

Compression springs 36 have their forward ends bearing against portions of the supporting frame 11 in the form of arms 37 secured as by means of welding 38 to the frame 11. The rearward ends of springs 36 bear against the spring-engaging books 33 on the elements 30 and are thus associated with the latches 32 and are movable therewith to direct the forces of the springs 36 above or below the centers of the sleeves turning movements thus to urge the latches toward their extreme forwardly extending positions indicated in Figures 3 and 4 or toward their extreme forwardly-upwardly extending positions indicated in Figures 6 and 7.

Rearwardly extending lugs 39 are provided at the lower extremities of the depending keeper racks 27. These lugs 39 are adapted to contact the latches 32 after the teeth 28 of the racks have all cleared the latches in their upward swinging movement with the rear of the seat 14, thus to turn the latches upwardly and direct the forces of the springs 36 above the centers of the sleeves turning movements. Plates 40 secured to the seats bottom board 19 as by means of woodscrews 41 are similarly adapted to contact the latches 32 after the teeth 28 of the keeper racks 27 have all cleared the latches in their downward swinging movement with the rear of the seat 14, thus to turn the latches 32 downwardly and direct the forces of the springs 36 below the centers of the sleeves turning movements.

The sleeves 29 are desirably connected by means of a tie-bar 42 welded thereto, to insure turning movement,

of these sleeves in unison. An operating handle 43 (see Figures 2 and 3) is secured to the left hand side of the seat as by means of woodscrews 44 passing upwardly through a lower flange 45 on the operating handle 43 and into the seats bottom board 19.

Operation When the occupant of this drivers chair desires to adjust the tilt of his seat, he may do so with only one hand thus leaving his other hand free for operation of the vehicle. To elevate the rear of the seat from its position seen in Figure 4, the operator shifts his weight slightly forwardly on the seat and with his left hand lifts up on the operating handle 43. The teeth 28 of the seats depending keeper racks 27 cam the latches 32 upwardly as seen in full lines in Figure 5, and after the latches have passed over a pair of the teeth 28 they are returned by springs 36 so as to engage beneath said teeth to support the rear of the seat at a selected elevation depending upon which set of teeth 28 the operator selects to engage. If thereafter it is desired to lower the rear of the seat, the operator again lifts up on the operating handle 43 until lugs 39 cam the latches 32 past the centers of turning movement of sleeves 29, whereupon springs 36 force the latches 32 to their extreme forwardly-upwardly extending positions seen in Figure 7. Subsequent lowering movement of the rear of the seat 14 causes plates 40 to contact the latches 32 after the racks teeth 28 have all cleared the latches in their downward movement with the rear of the seat, whereupon springs 36 again urge the latches 32 toward their extreme forwardly extending, or lowered, positions.

It will thus be seen that the invention provides a simple but effective seat tilt adjustment, and while but one specific embodiment of the invention has been herein shown and described, it will be understood that numerous details thereof may be altered or omitted without departing from the spirit of the invention as the same is defined by the following claims.

I claim:

1. In a chair: a supporting frame having spaced cylindrical seat-supporting crossbars at its front and rear; a chair seat pivotally mounted at its front underside on the front crossbar for swinging movement thereabout; a keeper rack depending from the seats rear underside forwardly of the rear crossbar; a sleeve turnably mounted on the rear crossbar; a latch extending radially from the sleeve and movable therewith to an extreme forwardly extending position of engagement beneath a selected tooth of the keeper rack said latch being also movable with the sleeve to an extreme forwardly-upwardly extending position out of the path of the racks teeth in the latters swinging movement with the seat; and means limiting the turning movement of the sleeve to positions in which the latch occupies one or the other of the aforesaid extreme positions.

2. A chair structure according to claim 1 characterized by having spring means for urging the latch toward one or the other of the aforesaid extreme positions.

3. A chair structure according to claim 2 characterized by having a rear-wardly extending lug on the lower extremity of the keeper rack adapted to contact the latch after the teeth of the rack have all cleared the latch in the racks upward swinging movement with the rear of the seat thus to turn the latch toward its extreme forwardly-upwardly extending position, and means on the rear underside of the seat adapted to contact the latch after the teeth of the rack have all cleared the latch in the racks downward swinging movement with the rear of the seat thus to turn the latch toward its extreme forwardly extending position.

4. A chair structure according to claim 1 characterized by having a rearwardly extending lug on the lower extremity of the keeper rack adapted to contact the latch after the teeth of the rack have all cleared the latch in the racks upward swinging movement with the rear of the seat thus to turn the latch toward its extreme forwardly-upwardly extending position, and means on the rear underside of the seat adapted to contact the latch after the teeth of the rack have all cleared the latch in the racks downward swinging movement with the rear of the seat thus to turn the latch toward its extreme forwardly extending position.

5. In a chair: a supporting frame having spaced cylindrical seat-supporting crossbars at its front and rear; a chair seat pivotally mounted at its front underside on the front crossbar for swinging movement thereabout; a keeper rack depending from the seats rear underside forwardly of the rear crossbar; a sleeve turnably mounted on the rear crossbar; a latch extending radially from the sleeve and movable therewith to an extreme forwardly extending position of engagement beneath a selected tooth of the keeper rack,,said latch being also movable with the sleeve to an extreme forwardly-upwardly extending position out of the path of the racks teeth in the latters swinging movement with the seat; and a pin on the rear crossbar extending into a segmental void in the sleeve and adapted for contact with the sleeve at opposite ends of the void for limiting movements of the sleeve and the latch to their aforesaid extreme positions.

6. In a chair: a supporting frame having parallel, horizontally disposed, cylindrical seatsupporting crossbars at its front and rear; a chair seat pivotally mounted at its front underside on the front crossbar for swinging movement thereabout; a plate extending transversely across the rear underside of the seat and secured thereto, said plate having its opposite end portions turned downwardly and notched to form keeper racks depending forwardly of the rear crossbar; spaced sleeves turnably mounted on the rear crossbar; latches extending radially from the sleeves and movable therewith to extreme forwardly extending positions of engagement beneath selected teeth of the keeper racks for supporting the rear of the seat at selected elevations, said latches being also movable with the sleeves to extreme forwardly-upwardly extending positions out of the paths of the racks teeth in their swinging movement with the seat; pins on the rear crossbar extending into segmental voids in the sleeves and adapted for contact with the sleeves at opposite ends of the voids for limiting movements of the sleeves and latches to their aforesaid extreme positions; compression springs having their forward ends bearing against portions of the chair-supporting frame and having their rearward ends associated with the latches and movable therewith to direct the forces of the springs above or below the centers of the sleeves turning movements, thus to urge the latches toward one or the other of their aforesaid extreme positions; rearwardly extending lugs at the lowermost extremities of the depending keeper racks adapted to contact the latches after the teeth of the racks have all cleared the latches in their upward swinging movement with the rear of the seat thus to turn the latches upwardly and direct the forces of the springs above the centers of the sleeves turning movements; and means on the rear underside of the seat adapted to contact the latches after the teeth of the racks have all cleared the latches in their downward swinging move ment with the rear of the seat thus to turn the latches downwardly and direct the forces of the springs below the centers of the sleeves turning movements.

References Cited in the file of this patent UNITED STATES PATENTS 

